The Whole Field • Volume 5 • No. 12 • Full Moon • June 29, 2026

Smitten • Micron Pen and Sakura Gel Pen on Watercolor Paper • 8"x10" • 2026

Transformation • Micron Pen, India Ink, and Gouache on Watercolor Paper • 8"x10" • 2024

Change • Micron Pen on Watercolor Paper, Gold Leaf • 8"x10" • 2020

Wolf & Bear • (Kyria and Nigel Smith)

an excerpt from Laura Zabel's

Three Nickels and a Feather

Laura Zabel is a pretty major role-model for some of us at Crosshatch, given the work she's done with Springboard for the Arts and the newer Creative Change Coalition. She's one of very few leaders in the non-profit world who have managed to build strong organizations with robust funding, while also remaining true to core principles around serving their communities and building deep trust. Laura visited Traverse City in May to give the keynote at the NWMI Arts Summit. It was a stellar reminder of the power of arts, and artists, in difficult times, and of the ways organizations can best serve artists and the communities around them. Here it is.              

-Brad

"...And we started bringing people together to talk about emergency relief and to help people troubleshoot all the nitty gritty nuts and bolts of how to get money to people very quickly in a pandemic. And I'm so proud of that work. I really believe in emergency relief. I believe it's necessary, and that there's nothing more important to someone in an emergency than some money quickly.

I also realized, like anyone who's done emergency relief, that you could do emergency relief forever and never actually address the reason people are in an emergency in the first place, which is structural. It's economic. And particularly for artists, it has to do with the precarity of living between being self-employed and a small business owner and kind of having the worst of both worlds. No contract protections, no access to benefits, contracts that have been written to be the easiest to cut the quickest when there is an emergency or when things go wrong.

I've often said over the last twenty one years that what artists actually—if you ask me what artists really need to be healthy in this country? They need an economy that works better for everyone. Like, we can do all kinds of programs all the time, but until we actually change some of the structural pieces of our economy and how we value people and labor and our contributions to communities, a lot of it is at the margins.

So we were ruminating on that as we were fighting our way out of the pandemic and thinking, gosh, we've spent a lot of years counting on the fact that these small things we do in the community will travel up into systems..."

The Warp — Ideas and Inspiration

|| 1 || You know, this was originally going to say something akin to "Look how close we are!" But thanks to you, we can share—"WE DID IT!" 

We're so thankful to the 150+ of you who donated to help us meet our Patronicity fundraising goal, as well as to all who helped with their conversations, questions, attention, and other creative ways of supporting the Crosshatch Meeting Place + Mercantile campaign. 

We also want to share that there are three days left in the campaign window, and a donor has offered to match an additional $10K if we can hit $60K by Thursday. Click here for the latest updates and to donate if you like. 

|| 2 || If we didn't have access to coffee, then what? This is a theoretical question, but it is grounded in some realities. Coffee is a globally traded commodity. Global shipping practices have shown vulnerabilities in recent years. Coffee shrubs will grow in Michigan, but, frankly, won't grow much, and if you're expecting them to bear harvest-worthy levels of cherries, you'll be quickly out of luck. And coffee growers throughout the world, in the locations closer to the equator that are suitable for coffee production, face stark challenges in the form of crop payments that don't meet rising costs of production, loss of adequate lands for producing coffee due to changing climate conditions, increased pest and fungal pressures, and more. So what would our options be if coffee wasn't available?  

-The Kentucky coffeetree? This does grow in Michigan—I know I've seen them in Detroit. The seeds require scarification to germinate, which could be related to past patterns of spread by megafauna. Unfortunately, though, like the next consideration, there's no caffeine in "coffee" made from Kentucky Coffee tree pods.

-Dandelion root coffee? Same, meaning maybe a taste substitute to an extent if you like rich, earthy, roasty coffees, but no sensory match for the complexity of an arabica roasted with an even-hand. And again—no caffeine.

-Yaupon holly, or Ilex vomitoria, is related to yerba maté for those familiar with bombas and bombillas (gourds and metal filter/sieve/straw combos used for traditional maté consumption). It has caffeine. As far as I can tell, though, it doesn't overwinter anywhere near as far north as we are. The closest potential varietal I found for cold hardiness is Hoskins Shadow, but it's iffy.

-Camellia sinensis? Black, green, white, and all of the other teas (not tisanes) come from the Camellia sinensis plant. Before gathering these notes, I thought Camellia sinensis in Northwest Michigan was similar to coffee—you can grow it as a novelty, but not at the level of viably harvesting at any scale. I was wrong—Light of Day has hoop houses in Leelanau County that have been housing perennial Camellia sinensis plants since 2004.

The Weft — News and Events

We’re heartened by a wide-range of expressions of resilient communities and gatherings. Here’s a smattering of regional events and happenings that reflect that diversity, collected for your consideration. Choose your own adventure!

|| 1 || Livestock Show and Tell Tours - Monday, July 13th, 6-8pm (Misty Acres Farm, Benzonia) and Monday, July 20th, 6-8pm (Danu Hof Farm, Mancelona). Crosshatch is hosting two summer farmer meet-ups focused on sharing knowledge and building connections between small scale livestock producers. Folks aspiring to raise farm animals are welcome also. Join us at either event or both to learn, connect, and relax a little amongst good company. Find more about the learning tour gatherings, and register, at the links above. 

|| 2 || The Traverse City Dance Project Summer Tour visits Bellaire. July 26th, 6:30-9pm, at the Short's Brewing Company Beer Garden. Featuring seven professional dancers from across the country, multiple premieres, live music from the Charlie Millard Band, and more. Find more details here. 

|| 3 || From Pasture to Plate: Learn to Process Your Own Chicken—Sunday, August 16th, 10am-3pm, Danu Hof Farm, Mancelona. "This experience is about more than just learning a skill — it's about getting to know where your food comes from, supporting a farm that's doing things the right way, and feeling more confident and connected in the kitchen and beyond." Click here for more info and registration. 

|| 4 || Earthcraft Skillshare 2026: "Pulse of the People"—July 9-12th, Scotts, MI.  Hands-on ancestral skills workshops, traditional music and dancing, keynote presentations, and more. Find the schedule, more info, and tickets, here. 

|| 5 || Bees!

-Grand Traverse Beekeeping Club. June Meeting: Bee Calendar and Mid-Season Management for Winter - Tuesday, June 30th, 6:30-8:30pm, 3400 Veterans Drive, Traverse City. Follow the GT Beekeeping Club here for more. 

-Little Traverse Bay Beekeepers Guild. Overwintering in Northern Climates, Tuesday, August 18th, 6-8pm, Bear Creek Township Hall in Petoskey. "Dr. Adam Ingrao will explore the key factors that impact winter survival and share proven strategies used at Bee Wise Farms to successfully overwinter bees in Michigan’s Upper Peninsula, including a step-by-step hive setup process." Find more here.

-Benzie Bee Guild. Bee Yard Work Sessions at Grow Benzie: Wednesday, July 1st, at 10am, Wednesday, July 15th, at 10am, and Saturday, July 18th, at 10am. Find more details on Benzie Bee Guild happenings here. 

|| 6 || Mark your Calendars! The 2026 Northern Michigan Small Farm Conference is coming to downtown Bellaire, Oct. 4th-6th. Find more on the theme, Culture Keepers, and the conference here. 

|| 7 || Happenings at The Alluvion Between Now and the Next Whole Field include: Big Fun + DJ Ras Marco, and Funky Uncle + DJ Ras Marco.

Find more information at thealluvion.org. 

sponsored by:

Desmond Liggett Wealth Advisors is a mission-driven, fee-only wealth management company with a simple purpose: to generate exceptional value for the individuals, families, small business owners, and non-profit organizations they serve. Desmond Liggett Wealth Advisors believe in and adhere to triple-bottom-line analysis for portfolio investments, ensuring that they review how a company’s environmental and social values impact its long-term resilience and, consequently, value.

Crosshatch’s The Whole Field is a biweekly (meaning roughly every other week) human-written newsletter. We aim to provide engaging, thought-provoking content that’s worth your time. Click here to subscribe to our mailing list.

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